Fiery Sea of Thieves expansion Forsaken Shores launches September 19

Look for a new quest type and PvP flag

The most recent Sea of Thieves update introduced skeletal crews, but when the Forsaken Shores expansion drops on September 19, pirates will contend with a deadly new threat: mother nature.

Forsaken Shores is going to heat up the high seas with volcanoes that can rain fire and sink unlucky ships, but thankfully, we’ll have access to a nimble new rowboat to make island hopping a little easier. You can find rowboats out in the world and dock one to your ship and take it with you.

This week at gamescom, Rare also announced a line of merchant delivery quests called Cargo Runs arriving with Forsaken Shores. You’ll have to safely transport precious cargo including bottles of rum, expensive cloth, and plants that need to not break, not get wet, and stay hydrated, respectively. That sounds complicated, to put it mildly, but it’s a clever use of existing systems in Sea of Thieves.

Finally, for those of you craving more player-on-player interaction, the game is getting a Reaper’s Mark flag that you can fly to show your ship on everyone else’s map. In other words, “Come to Snake Island in the next 20 minutes if you want an ass kicking.”